Is this accessibility checker free?

Yes. It is free, there is no signup, and nothing about your site is stored. Enter a public web address and the scan runs immediately.

What does the 1–5 score mean?

It mirrors the NYC Department of Education's Website Accessibility Report banding, which scores sites on average weighted errors per page: 1 or fewer errors scores 5, up to 5 errors scores 4, up to 9 scores 3, up to 13 scores 2, and above that scores 1. Lower errors, higher score.

Does a passing score mean my school website is ADA compliant?

No. This scan checks a specific set of high-frequency, machine-detectable barriers on your homepage. Automated tools of any kind catch roughly a third of WCAG issues; the rest — keyboard traps, focus order, meaningful sequence, video captions — need a human. Treat a clean scan as a floor, not a certificate.

Which pages does it check?

The homepage only. That is deliberate: it returns in seconds and the homepage is where the most-used links live. A full audit walks every page and adds color-contrast analysis.

Are NYC schools legally required to have an accessible website?

Public schools are covered by Section 504 and Title II of the ADA, and the NYC DOE publishes an accessibility score for school websites. WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the benchmark generally applied. Private schools are covered by Title III.

Can I use this on a website that isn't a school?

Yes. The checks are general WCAG rules, so it works on any public website. It is built for school and PTA sites because that is who the scoring bands come from.

Free tool · no signup

Is your school website accessible?

Paste any school or PTA web address and this runs the same machine-checkable rules the NYC Department of Education grades school websites on — missing image alt text, broken heading order, vague link text. You get a 1–5 score and a count of every failure found, in about five seconds. Free, no signup, nothing stored.

Homepage check for the most common barriers — alt text, heading order, link clarity. A full DOE audit goes deeper (every page + color contrast). Nothing stored.

Short answer

Most school websites fail on the same four things: images without alt text, headings that skip levels, links that read “click here”, and text with too little contrast. All four are machine-detectable, all four are cheap to fix, and together they are the bulk of what separates a DOE accessibility score of 2 from a 5.

What this checks, and how to fix each one

Four rules, each mapped to the WCAG success criterion behind it. An automated scan of any kind catches roughly a third of real accessibility problems — these are the third that are worth catching first, because they are the most common and the least expensive to repair.

Images missing alt text

WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A)

Who it hurts. A parent using a screen reader hears “image” — or the file name — instead of what the picture shows. On a flyer posted as a JPEG, that means the entire announcement is silent.

How to fix it. Give every meaningful image an alt attribute describing what it conveys, not what it looks like. Decorative images get alt="" so the screen reader skips them. Never post text-only flyers as images without repeating the text on the page.

Skipped heading levels

WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A)

Who it hurts. Screen-reader users navigate a page by jumping between headings, the way a sighted reader skims. Jumping from an H1 straight to an H4 breaks that outline, so sections get missed entirely.

How to fix it. One H1 per page, then descend one level at a time. Don't pick a heading tag for its size — pick it for its place in the outline and style it with CSS.

Vague link text

WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (Level A)

Who it hurts. Screen readers can list every link on a page out of context. A page of “click here”, “read more”, and “here” is a list of identical, meaningless entries.

How to fix it. Write links that make sense read alone: “Download the 2026 budget (PDF, 240 KB)” instead of “click here”. This also helps search engines understand what you're linking to.

Low-contrast text

WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast Minimum (Level AA)

Who it hurts. Light grey text on white is unreadable for anyone with low vision, and hard for everyone else outdoors on a phone — which is where most parents read school email.

How to fix it. Body text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background; large text needs 3:1. School brand colors often fail as text colors even when they're fine as backgrounds.

How the 1–5 score works

The NYC DOE publishes an accessibility report that scores school websites on average weighted errors per page — fewer errors, higher score. This tool uses the same bands, so the number it gives you is comparable to the one your school is already being measured against.

Score	Average weighted errors per page
5	1 or fewer
4	more than 1, up to 5
3	more than 5, up to 9
2	more than 9, up to 13
1	more than 13

Where the common vendors land

Published figures from the DOE's April 2026 vendor table. If your school is on one of these platforms, this is roughly where you are starting from — which is useful context for the number the scan just gave you.

Platform	Avg weighted errors	Score
EduTech	0.49	5
eChalk	1.18	4
Educational Networks	3.38	4
Google Sites	10.52	2
Weebly	15.57	1

What a scan like this cannot tell you

Being straight about the ceiling: automated testing catches something like a third of WCAG issues. It cannot judge whether alt text is accurate, whether a page is usable by keyboard alone, whether focus order makes sense, whether a video has real captions, or whether a form's error messages are comprehensible. A clean scan means you have cleared the easy failures — it is a floor, not a certificate of compliance. Anyone selling you a one-click compliance badge is selling you a liability.

Common questions

Is this accessibility checker free?: Yes. It is free, there is no signup, and nothing about your site is stored. Enter a public web address and the scan runs immediately.
What does the 1–5 score mean?: It mirrors the NYC Department of Education's Website Accessibility Report banding, which scores sites on average weighted errors per page: 1 or fewer errors scores 5, up to 5 errors scores 4, up to 9 scores 3, up to 13 scores 2, and above that scores 1. Lower errors, higher score.
Does a passing score mean my school website is ADA compliant?: No. This scan checks a specific set of high-frequency, machine-detectable barriers on your homepage. Automated tools of any kind catch roughly a third of WCAG issues; the rest — keyboard traps, focus order, meaningful sequence, video captions — need a human. Treat a clean scan as a floor, not a certificate.
Which pages does it check?: The homepage only. That is deliberate: it returns in seconds and the homepage is where the most-used links live. A full audit walks every page and adds color-contrast analysis.
Are NYC schools legally required to have an accessible website?: Public schools are covered by Section 504 and Title II of the ADA, and the NYC DOE publishes an accessibility score for school websites. WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the benchmark generally applied. Private schools are covered by Title III.
Can I use this on a website that isn't a school?: Yes. The checks are general WCAG rules, so it works on any public website. It is built for school and PTA sites because that is who the scoring bands come from.

Score lower than you'd like?

We build school and PTA sites to the top of this report and keep them there — accessibility is checked on every deploy, not audited once at launch. Flat $900/year, no setup fee, and you own the domain, content, and code outright. Title I and high-need public schools can apply for a free build.

See what we build for schools Read the WCAG 2.1 AA guide

Building an agent? This scan is also an MCP tool — fst_scan_accessibility(url) — callable with no API key. Connect your agent →